Rep. Schiff: We Can’t Release FISA Memo Because American People Wouldn’t Understand It

CABRERA: “Let me ask you about the Russia investigation because I can't have you here and not. Especially given how much we talked about it in the first year of the presidency. And now if you turn on any conservative media, they keep talking about this Nunes memo, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, that he’s put out there and many Republicans have taken a look at it and they want it made public. Can you tell us about this memo? What exactly is it?”
SCHIFF: “It is essentially a set of talking points that the Republican Intel staff drafted. Based on the highly classified materials which most of the Republican members were forced to acknowledge they’ve not even read. So they don’t know how distorted these talking points are. But as part of the narrative they want to push out. Interestingly enough, they’ve made common cause, once again, with Russian bots because Russian bots are pushing their narrative out there. It’s in a redux of the campaign. We have Julian Assange and Wikileaks and Russian trolls and bots saying, you know, hashtag whatever the GOP narrative is. That ought to tell you a lot about what’s driving this. And that is —“
CABRERA: “Why not allow people to look at it and let Americans make the decision for themselves about whether it’s useful information or not?”
SCHIFF: “Well, because the American people unfortunately don’t have the underlying materials and therefore they can’t see how distorted and misleading this document is. The Republicans are not saying make the underlying materials available to the public. They just want to make this spin available to the public. I think that spin, which is a fulsome attack on the FBI, is just designed to attack the FBI and Bob Mueller to circle the wagons for the White House. And that’s a terrible disservice to the people, hard working people at the Bureau, but more than that, it’s a disservice to the country.”
CABRERA: “Adam Schiff, congressman, thank you.”